Our Last Quiet-ish Christmas EVER!!!

December 25, 2009
We actually had to wake Aidan up this morning. I set the alarm for 7:30 because I was worried that she would repeat last year's incident where she went downstairs alone, opened a movie, then came upstairs to show us. I thought she opened everthing, but luckily she was so innocent that she was genuinly excited about a movie. This year I wasn't going to take the chance and for most parents on Christmas morning 7:30 is sleeping in.
This was a great trick we stumbled upon. We left this Littlest Pet Shop playground unwrapped, she started playing with it right away so we had time to get coffee set and finish preparing breakfast.

This was her first gift open. She asked Santa for Spike JR. the baby of the big remote control Spike she got last year from Santa... Santa got off easy this year!

Cat fight!

It's never truely Christmas until you torture the cats with tape and bows.

Aidan making the dive for the last gift.

Christmas Eve 2009

December 24, 2009

Aidan with her new penguin, Fuzz Fuzz, she got from her cousin.We had Christmas Eve dinner with our some of our friends then headed home to set out cookies and pomegranates for Santa. Amy also sent Aidan home with a bag of Reindeer food to sprinkle on the front lawn.

Getting Ready for Christmas

December 23, 2009
Making the last preparations for Christmas!!!
Brad and Aidan are in charge of the pet's gifts.

Translation: Roxy

Bob

Practicing writing Stinky, Roxy, Bob, and Sadie.

December 23, 2009
Aidan loves to see the gingerbread houses at the Davenport Hotel. She was so excited to get all dressed up to go to the hotel, see the houses, and have hot chocolate.
"Whokane Ville" I think the Grinch is on the South Hill! I thought this was really creative to make all the monuments of Spokane look like Whoville.
This was the coolest one we thought. Snow White and the Seven Dwarf's Cottage.

Aidan really loved Lady and the Tramp.

Veggie Tales Jonah and the Whale

Decorating the Gingerbread House

December 13, 2009 Of course there's a turtle living in our gingerbread house!

The current Thompson Family: Beth, Aidan and Brad.

The soon to be Thompson Family: Beth, Aidan, Brad, Leo and Capri.

Peppridge Farm makes these Ginger Family cookies and we were pretty excited to see that the children were a boy and a girl like our twins. Aidan had a hard time at first not being attached to her siblings, then I told her she could be with Mom and the Twins could be with Dad... we may have some hard times ahead of us?!

The Nutcracker Ballet

December 20, 2009
Our friend Joy organized a block of tickets for the Nutcracker Ballet. We started the day with a beautiful brunch at Joy's house then headed to the theater. Aidan was really intersted up until the end of the second act, then got figgity just before intermission. She was lost in the third act and was ready to get out of there. I think she would have done better at a show with words. At least we somewhat knew what the story was because we watched the Barbie Nutcracker DVD to prepare. We all really enjoyed a day that we could dress up, have brunch with friends, and see a show together. After the ballet we went to dinner at PF Chang's (our favorite). It was a long wait, but so worth it!

Aidan loves her picture taken with the horse outside the restaraunt.

Aidan wanted me to take her picture in this rental stroller while Brad was paying for our parking. Goof Ball!

Aidan's Preschool Christmas Open House

December 17, 2009
On the last day of school Aidan's preschool hosted an open house to decorate gingerbread houses and the kids sang a few Christmas songs for their parents.
Our good friends and neighbors, Emily and Tristan. Tristan is in Aidan's class.

Aidan sang parts of the first song and by the 3rd song she was ready to get out of there. She made the most of it and put her jingle bells on her foot and played along.

Our One Day of Winter in December

December 15, 2009

This was the first significant snow of the year. Luckily we just picked up our snowblower from the repair shop! Brad had fun testing it out by being the handy neighbor and snowblowing a few of our neighbor's sidewalks and driveways. He got a 6 pack of beer out of it!

Aidan was just beside herself when she woke up in the morning to see that it was snowing then totally bummed that she had to go to school. By the time we got outside it was already getting dark (3:30) and it was raining by then.

Brad had been to the dentist in the morning and took an Avon sample of this bright lipstick for Aidan that they had on counter. She insisted on wearing it and it really shows up well in pictures!

When our neighbors Mark and Tristan came out we took the sled over to the small hill on the corner of the park to do a little sledding. It was a good thing we did becuase the next day the snow was pretty much melted. The next week Aidan was asking if we could go to Target to get one of the gifts she asked Santa for and I told her that Christmas hadn't come yet. She told me how she thought that the snow came and went and that was our Christmas, Santa didn't come. Oh, how sad! It's a good thing Santa doesn't need snow to land his sled.